Hey, it's Andrea Bernstein back in your feed with something extra from our colleagues

here at WNYC. We think you'll really like. It's a new show called Blind Spot, the Road

to 9-11. If you think you know this stuff already, trust me, you don't. This story is based

on interviews with more than 60 people, including FBI agents, high-level bureaucrats, journalists,

experts, and people who knew the terrorists personally. Here's the first episode of Blind Spot,

The Road to 9-11 hosted by my friend, journalist and storyteller, Parix Lanz, Jim O'Grady. You can find

the rest of the episodes at WNYC Studios.org or listen for free or wherever you get your podcasts.

There's nothing special about my 9-11 story. Like everyone's story, it depends on chance. By chance,

that morning I was living in a house on a hill at the tip of Staten Island. When I heard about

the first plane hitting the North Tower, I rushed to the hill where there's this perfect view of

the World Trade Center. I remember standing there and suddenly feeling the second plane flying past me.

It was a jumbo jet and was coming in loud and low. The plane ripped past and went streaking over

the water and hit the South Tower at 903. I saw the fireball and the smoke. Back then, I was a

reporter for the New York Times, so I ran down to the waterfront. I pulled out a notebook and my

pen and I tried to start interviewing people. But nobody had anything to say. We all just fell

silent and stared at the buildings. Then the South Tower disappeared and we all looked at each other

like, did that? Did that just... There was so much smoke. It was hard to tell. A woman next to me

fell to her knees and started speaking in tongues like she was possessed. Her way of handling shock, I guess.

For months, like a lot of journalists, I covered the story of 9-11 in New York. All the firefighters

and cops from Staten Island who died. All the ambulances bringing debris from ground zero to the

fresh hills landfill where workers sifted through it for human remains. I did stories about the

harassment of Muslims and about some construction workers in Times Square who made sure nobody

...